Forgotten
by WednesdayLove
Summary: [Friends of Mineral Town] - Manna wants Duke to stop his drinking and money problems. Duke... wants to keep drinking and spending money. (FINISHED)
1. PROLOGUE

"You can't keep making these calls, we really don't have the money for it." Manna begged to her husband Duke as she sat on the edge of her bed.

The man scoffed at her to himself and tossed his vest onto the coat rack by the doorway and shuffled his way toward his bed, ignoring his scolding. Why was he always like this? He didn't seem to understand the budget was tight. He threw money away at the bar every night, long-distance at that, running up the neighboors' phone bill with no way to repay them, and buying so much alcohol right along with it.

She continued, now with a more annoyed voice, "And not to mention you just have to buy a couple drinks when you go, too!"

A mere sound of a grunt was the most she could get out of the old man as he tossed his clothes onto the floor and collapsed into the bed opposite her. He angrily threw the blanket over himself as a declaration of ending the squabble.

Manna looked at her hands and then over to Aja's bed, and eventually got into her bed alongside Duke. Couldn't he at least respond to her pleas? It wouldn't help the situation to fight any longer, though.

She wrapped her arm over his body and drew a light circle on his chest with her index finger as an apology. There was no use making him any more angry with her. Under her half embrace she could feel him become a little less tense.

She fell asleep.


	2. CHAPTER ONE

"Good Morning, Jack!"

The voice may have been friendly, but Jack almost fell back into his house when the old man greeted him as soon as he walked out in the morning. Duke noticed Jack in shock for a bit, but didn't think anything of it. That boy was always strange; he hardly talked, and he worked five times more than anyone else in Mineral Town.

"We're going to harvest the grapes on our orchard for wine starting tomorrow," The man reached up and fiddled with his bow tie, "And I wanted to know if you would give us a hand."

The strange farmer nodded, the large wad of hair sticking out from his hat bouncing around his head. Duke guessed this was a confirmation and started to walk away. He reached the entrance to his farm and turned back to find that the boy was still staring in the same direction, doing nothing at all. Hesitantly, the older man blinked, cleared his throat, and added, "Oh, and if you know anyone else that wants work, let them know we could use the help."

Something about that kid made him a bit nervous when talking, but he didn't mind. The boy was a friendly boy, and he often stopped by to grab grape juice or wine from Manna. More money is less trouble.

It was a sunny day in Mineral Town. Duke smiled as he paced home, ready to start another day of work. He smiled at the quiet, peaceful morning. Living the life of a wine-maker was quite pleasurable. Before he could think another thought, he was in front of his beautiful vinyard. The grapes glistened as the the sun's bright rays were trapped in the dew, being shone in all directions.

Duke's smile grew even wider as he took a deep breath of the fresh air and stretched his arms out and embraced the day. Life was good in this town. The air was clean and there was always the best wine -- made by himself of course.

His hand was about to grab the handle to the cellar door when he heard a thud from the front of his house.

_What is it now...?_ He thought to himself.

"Dear!" The woman called as she swiftly stepped over to the entrance of the cellar, "Could you please stay home tonight?"

Her husband stared at her as a demand for more explanation.

Manna looked at Duke's polished black shoes, her face flushing with fear of his response, "Let's just stay home and talk instead."

"Talk!" He turned the handle to the door, "All you ever do is talk! I'll go to the bar if I feel like it."

The cellar door slammed shut and Manna could swear she felt the world shake along with it.

"But you always feel like it," she whispered to the image of her his back that she could still she turned to her.

As if she could see anything behind the tears filling her eyes.

_This is nothing to be upset about, _She tried to logically work her way out of this one, _I shouldn't have tried to do something controlling like that. I should've just let him come home or go where he wanted. Maybe if Aja were here, things would be different. Maybe if..._

She shook her thoughts out of her head and hurried back into the house. She kept herself busy cleaning the counter, cleaning again and again. Maybe it would shine more if she wiped it over just one more time. Eventually it came time to open the winery, and she unlocked the front door, ready for customers. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and tried to forget about her troubles.

She had barely made it back to the counter when her first customer of the day came through the front door. She caughed to ready herself for talking and pulled back the corners of her mouth to form what seemed like a smile.

"Oh it's you, Jack," She greeted without thinking, "How are you? Did you know... I have a daughter named Aja who left us a long time ago... but she used to live here, just me, her, and Duke... here in the winery. She moved away to start a city life, I guess. I miss her a lot; I really wish she would come visit. Did you know Duke calls Aja from the inn every night? Think of what that must do to their phone bill. I know it only costs ten gold to use the phone, but I insist on paying poor Doug more, since it must cost a lot for the long distance calling, you know? He was hesitant to accept the money at first, but now he takes it easily, because I insisted... I really think it's the right thing to do. Duke would be so angry with me if he knew I did this, though -- he doesn't want any of our money going to waste..."

She stared at the funny boy in blue clothes as her voice trailed off, still not realizing she had said so much.

"Grape Juice!" Jack chimed, handing over 200 gold.

She cocked her head and arched her eyes, trying to be friendly, just beginning to notice that she had talked for quite a while to a stranger. She grabbed a bottle of grape juice from her counter and put the money into her money drawer. The boy lifted the juice over his head, smiled, and hobbled off.


	3. CHAPTER TWO

_And I was having such a good day, too._

Duke whined to himself as he arranged his bottles in the cellar, not really hearing the sound of the clanking glass that usually resonated in his heart, cheering him up. In fact, he wasn't paying attention to much at all. He started to pull the next bottle from the rack, but his wandering mind didn't notice that he didn't have a very good grip on it.

As he felt the weight of the bottle slip from his grasp, his thoughts shot to the present as his hands fumbled with the air around them, hoping the precious wine would return to safety. He felt his heart drop with the crashing sound as the glass bottle shattered among the floor, wine splashing onto the legs of his pants and all over the beautiful wood of his beloved cellar.

"It's all that woman's fault," He grumbled, staring at the very top of the bottle -- the largest piece.

His fists clenched together and his knuckles turned white. His teeth were grinding and his heart was racing -- his entire body burned with the flames of rage. His eyes didn't move from the faint glitter that the cellar lamps cast upon the mouth of the destroyed bottle. He took a deep breath in, held it, and pulled back his right leg.

"Dammit!" He swung his leg forward with all of his energy, sending the defenseless glass piece spinning across the floor into the wall of the cellar, letting out a piercing crack as it split in two.

Duke's chest rose and fell as he clamped his teeth together, sucking angry breaths through his nose and letting them escape through his barely parted lips. He noticed that there was now a small rip in his once-perfect leather shoe. His shoved his eyelids together and tried to calm himself down, but within seconds he was stomping up the creaking cellar stairs.

Each step was a bit of a relief as he stormed away from the winery and the vineyard. He had managed to calm down enough that he could appear normal again, and just in time as he had reached the doors to the inn. He shuffled across the floor, pulling up a seat to the bar and trying to be as calm as possible. He sat for a second, staring at Doug.

Doug seemed to be glaring at nothing, his eyes almost glossed over as he stood like a statue at his register.

Duke had had enough of annoying people today, "Well aren't you gonna do something?"

The red-headed man blinked and turned to the older man, realizing it was best not to fight with him, "I'm sorry. What did you want."

"The tallest glass." Duke snarled as a reply.

Doug sighed and fulfilled his customer's request. He knew Duke was supposed to be working today, but he knew it wouldn't help to tell Manna or to scold Duke himself, either. He poured the winery's finest into the inn's tallest wineglass and served it across the bar.

Duke noticed that Doug's eyes didn't leave him, "What do you want?"

Only a moment after the bartender had looked away, the glass slammed back to the counter. It was empty.

"Well," Duke's glared angrily at his bad service, "Refill it already!"

He waved the glass around and slammed it down again as Doug patiently refilled it, disgustedly watching the old man throw back six glasses in a row without even stopping to think.

"You do have money for this," Doug leaned over the counter, glaring back at Duke, "right?"

"What do you think?"

The man seemed a bit calmer now that he had some drinks, and he pulled a coin purse out of his back pocket to prove he could pay. After dumping the contents out on the counter, Doug counted the gold coins to reveal that there was still a ten gold fine for the drinks.

"I'll let it go," Doug stood firm as he collected the coins, "and I'll add the ten to your tab, which is already high, by the way... but I'm not serving you any more if you can't pay for it."

Duke was drunk enough to stay calm, but sober enough to admit defeat. He waded up his pouch, stuffed it in his pocket, and shuffled out the door mumbling to himself. With a slight buzz in his head, he could appreciate the sunny day once again. He resided to his wonderous cellar to clean up the mess he made earlier and continue with the day's work.


	4. CHAPTER THREE

With the last fluff of a pillow, Manna had finished her housework for the day, and she sat down on her bed to catch her breath for a few minutes. She heard the clatter of the front door from the room downstairs, and she knew Duke must have been home. She stood up and stretched her legs and arms, and then she heard another sound. It was a slight clatter of metal, and the sound of wood sliding across wood. It was a very familiar sound to her -- the one the drawer made when she put money in it. This time she didn't hear any money go in.

She nervously started to go back downstairs as she saw a figure exit escape through the front door. It was undeniable who she saw -- the black pants, the royal purple vest, the handsome black hair with streaks of silver -- it was most definitely her husband. And there was no doubt what he could've been doing with the money drawer, either. She didn't have to ask any questions or investigate any more.

Her body felt weak, and she couldn't help but to sit where she was on the stairs. She didn't know what the think or what to do. She buried her face in her hands and just hoped and hoped that things would get better somehow.

After almost an hour of having no thoughts, she regained enough strength to finish her flight down the stairs. She drug her feet across the cold wooden floor and made it to the counter, the most familiar place she knew. She counted the money in the drawer and compared it to her notepad, almost without thinking at all.

Six thousand gold. Should she be used to this by now? The numbers seemed to get higher every time, and every time she would feel this horrible. Why? Why was it that bad? Did it really have to hurt that much?

Her mind still numb and her body barely able to hold herself up, she slowly made the voyage upstairs to her bedroom where she cried herself to sleep. The last image she had in her eyes before she escaped from the world for the night was the tear-blurred outline of Aja's bed.

Instead of sitting, Jack stood next to a chair at the table as he stared at the wall next to the table at the bar. Duke kept a watchful eye on the strange farmer as he slowly drank a few glasses of wine.

"I just don't understand you, kid."

There was no response from blue-clothed stranger, who eventually left the bar without a word or a drink. Duke crossed his arms and watched the funny figure wobble out the door. There was something very strange about that kid.

"Are you done for the night?" A cheery girl's voice startled Duke a bit.

"'Course not." He chuckled, folding his arms on the table, "I'll take another. You worried about my drinking?"

Duke narrowed his eyes at Ann, Doug's daughter who helped out around the bar, and gave her a crooked smile. Ann's smile went awkward as she blushed and ran off to grab a bottle of wine to pour. The man laughed to himself and waited for her return.

"Most girls don't wear clothes like that, you know," He told her upon her return, "Do ya wanna be a farmer?"

The innocent girl laughed nervously at the strange question and slowly backed away, hoping he didn't want a serious response. She returned to her work cleaning and Duke bellowed a deep laugh to himself at his table.

After a few more drinks, Duke was feeling better about the day, and decided it would be best to go home early so that he could greet Jack in the morning and explain the harvesting.


	5. CHAPTER FOUR

"Thanks for coming today, the both of you." Duke got out his money and paid Jack and Cliff, the worker that Jack brought along.

"Say, Cliff," Duke looked up at the boy as he handed over his payment, "How would you like to work full-time here?"

Cliff hesitated. He had never been asked that type of question before.

"I could really use the extra help."

After a long pause, the boy responded, "S...sure! I'd love to!"

"That's good." The man smiled, "It pays well, too."

"To tell you the truth..." Cliff seemed almost afraid to speak, "I would have had to leave this town if I didn't find a way to make money soon."

Duke didn't really know how to respond, but he smiled and told Cliff that he could start work tomorrow. He watched the two leave, Cliff walking back toward the inn and Jack bouncing strangely off to his farm.

"Hello," Manna's husband's voice rang out as he entered the front door.

She looked up from writing in her notebook as she finished counting the money for the day, "Hello!"

She smiled. It had been a long time since she had seen Duke happy. She even forgot for a moment that she had just written "-6000" on the notepad. Duke took off his vest and jogged up the stairs to hang it out the coat rack. Manna's smile brightened as she realized that Duke was staying home for the night. She started to walk over to the stairway to go up to the room with him when she heard the creak of the stairs as her husband started to trudge back down.

"How about the two of us go to the bar tonight?" Duke offered, "I'll pay."

Manna's smile faded quickly. She sighed, and even though it wasn't what she was hoping for, it was an improvement over most nights. She didn't care if he payed or not -- they shared their money -- she just wanted to have a night at home with her husband.

"Ah," Duke recognized one of the figures at one of the bar tables, "Cliff!"

Cliff turned to the voice and greeted the couple as they walked into the bar. Manna seemed extremely timid.

"Don't mind her, she doesn't come here much." Duke laughed, "She's my wife, Manna."

"I know." Cliff smiled nervously. Everyone knew everyone in Mineral Town.

Duke laughed again and turned to Manna, who was blushing, "This is Cliff, he started working for us today."

The days continued on, and Manna started to go to the bar with Duke and Cliff more often after work. She didn't really enjoy the bar, but with her husband and the young boy Cliff, she felt like she was part of a family. It's not like Cliff was replacing Aja, but she had the feeling of togetherness that she had missed for so long, and she could she her husband smile every night. She still had a few problems though.

One night, Manna and Duke returned from the bar, and things proceeded as normal. Manna put on her favorite nightgown (she only had two), and she sat staring at Aja's empty bed until her husband had taken off his work clothes and started to get into bed. She got under the covers and turned to face him. He was sleeping with his back to her -- as always -- and she looked at his back for a while. Her eyes roamed the figure of his upper body, which was blue from the soothing moonlight peeking in from the window.

She inched herself a little closer and placed her hand on her husband's shoulder. She pulled herself closer until her body was almost pressed up against his. It has been so long since she had felt the warmth of another person this close to her. She ran her hand down his arm and carefully let it glide back up, and softly caressed his neck with her fingers. There was still no response from Duke, so she wrapped her arm over him and placed her palm in the hair on his chest, pulling herself closer into him. She nestled her head in the back of his, closing her eyes and smelling his hair -- the aroma of wood and wine from the cellar filling her body and putting a smile on her face. She moved her hand down his chest and arrived at his wasteline.

She used her fingers to carefully lift up an entrance into his black briefs, and started to move her hand inside. She had barely gotten to place her fingertips on what she was reaching for within when Duke slowly rolled over onto his stomach, causing his wife's hand to be resting plainly on his back.

"Manna, I'm tired."

Manna turned back toward Aja's bed and scolded herself, falling asleep later that night.


	6. CHAPTER FIVE

Even though she was able to feel happy at the bar, she felt just as bad as she ever did at home. The negative numbers from Duke kept getting worse and worse in her notebook. How long would it be before they were broke? She was looking at her notebook and feeling embarassed about the night before in bed when she had a thought.

She was going to refuse to go to the bar. Not only that, but she was going to confront Duke. The money was rightfully hers, too, and it was only hurting the both of them for him to spend it on drinking so much. Just because she was his wife didn't mean she had to sit back and watch.

She ran the store normally that day. Jack came in and bought nine bottles of grape juice, stuffing eight into his rucksack and carrying one high over his head. She always wondered why he did that. The day seemed to go by dreadfully slowly as she waited for her husband to come in from work. She looked over her notebook what seemed like a million times, hoping that something would happen -- a customer, a typhoon, _anything._

He came home, same time as always.

"Well, let's go out." He smiled at her, "Grab a little extra money just in case."

Manna bit her lower lip and took a deep breath. She stared at the counter that she hadn't left for the entire day. She closed her eyes and prepared herself. It seemed a lot harder to say it now than it seemed when she thought it up earlier. Duke folded his arms in front of himself and gave her a strange look. She didn't notice.

"What are you doing?" He questioned.

"No."

Duke paused for a bit, still confused.

"What?"

"No." Manna looked up at him, her face mixed with both confidence and fear, "You're not taking any more money."

"What do you mean? It's my m-"

"It's my money, too." Her voice was stern, "I work here every day. When we first married you said it was both of ours."

"Then it's part mine, and I can spend it how I want."

"I can protect it how I want, then, too. You can't keep doing this. It's hurting us both. We're going into debt with Doug and Jeff -- who knows who will be next. You keep taking more and more money for drinking. You don't pay attention to me anymore, all you seem to care about is money and getting drunk. What about me? What about Aja?" Her voice started to crackle at the end as she started to lose her confidence, but she refused to cry this time.

"Aja?" Duke snarled, "What does this have to do with Aja? What are you complaining about this time?"

Manna pressed her lips together and shut her eyes. She wouldn't cry. She had to stop this.

She opened her eyes and started to speak, but saw Duke's back in the doorway.

"Can you do anything other than nag?"

The door closed and Manna fell to her knees. She didn't have to hold back crying for right now.


	7. CHAPTER SIX

Doug and Cliff had stopped counting how many drinks Duke had that night. Cliff finally got nervous and left to his room upstairs.

"Duke..." Doug addressed him seriously.

"Shut up." Duke groaned, "I can pay for it."

The man dumped a giant pile of coins from his stuffed pouch onto the bar counter. The younger man looked at it for a second and waited for Duke to finish his glass.

He took it away.

Duke was already furious, "What're ya doin'?"

"You can't have any more." The bartender demanded, "Please, just go home."

"I can buy whatever the hell I want!" Duke pounded his fists into the table and stood up, knocking the stool down behind him, "It's my wine anyway!"

"Look, Duke," Doug was looking firmly into his eyes, "I'm saying this as a friend. Just go home."

The world turned into a kaleidoscope for a second, and then it started to twist a bit. Duke shook his head and cleared away the strangeness for a second. He turned around to find something to throw at Doug, when he saw a figure walking into the bar. Even though it was blurry and he was getting light-headed, he could tell who it was right away.

"Manna." He grunted.

Manna saw Doug look at her fearfully, and she looked back at her husband, now in a blind rage. She didn't know what to say or do. She thought she could come stop him, but now it was too late.

"You put 'im up to this, didn't you?" Duke squinted at her and raised a fist.

He took an unbalanced step toward her figure in the door way and fell over. He didn't really know what was going on, but he saw something wooden, and then something white, and he closed his eyes.

"So you woke up." Doctor said to him, "You can't drink like that Duke."

Duke realized his eyes were open. He just saw white -- a lot of white. Eventually, he could see more and more. The white started to take shape, and there was a shadow sitting in front of him.

"Doctor." Duke said the name when he recognized the shadow.

A sharp pain hit his head as he cringed and flinched in the bed.

"Just rest here for the day," Doctor sighed and walked away, "You'll be hungover all day with the way you were drinking."

Duke felt horrible. His head felt like it was trying to tear itself into pieces, and the rest of his body felt like it was trying to escape through his throat. He spent the day in the infirmary, getting up to use the bathroom with the help of Elli or Doctor. He spent the day worrying when mana would come to see if he was alright. Some time in the afternoon, he fell asleep.

The notebook was drenched with tears, but she couldn't stop looking at it. The numbers had almost reached -15,000, and the cash in the drawer didn't seem sufficient enough even for basic living. That wasn't what worried her, though. What was that monster that lunged toward her in the bar that night? What had happened to her loving, caring husband that she married? Who was this person?

The winery was closed that day, luckily, so no work needed to be done. She didn't have to see Cliff, or anyone else for that matter. She sat at the counter with the lights off, staring at the notebook. The tears never stopped.

Eventually it she was too exhausted to even think, and she somehow made her way upstairs. She was struggling to change into her nightgown when she heard the familiar sound of the front door. She almost felt faint when she heard the other familiar sound. The money drawer opened.

This was it. She was finished with this. She threw her nightgown on the rest of the way and ran down the stairs.

Duke was writing in the notebook. She waited for him to look up to yell at him. She was going to tell him everything she felt, and he was going to listen. If he didn't listen this time...

Duke took out his coin purse from his back pocket, unlatched it, and dumped the few gold pieces he had into the drawer.

"Do you think that will make things better?" The woman screamed from across the room, "Is that really all you have left, after how much you took?"

"Well, I had to use a lot." Her husband replied coldly.

She paused for a moment in disbelief, "You don't need these things. You don't have to use a lot -- you don't even have to use any!"

"I had to use quite a bit," He looked up at her.

His expression wasn't the same. Something was different about it. Normally he would look away, be more annoyed. Something was strange about his voice, too. There was definitely something wrong.

"I had to pay Doctor for the hospital bill, and what he gave me while I was there." Duke looked down and closed his eyes, "And I payed the entire tab at the bar on the way home. I'll be able to pay Jeff next time the store opens, and when I get more money next week."

Manna stood still. She didn't know what to do or say. Could she trust him? He never lied before. He may have spent so much money, but he never lied about it.

Her husband took off his vest and walked past her and up the stairs. She remained still, staring at the wall, trying to figure out what she should be feeling or thinking. Her shoulders seemed higher, and she felt a little less weak than normal. After standing for a while longer, she decided she might as well sleep on it. She journeyed to her bed -- still in a shock -- and layed down facing Aja's bed. She didn't seem to be tired anymore.

Moments later, an arm wrapped around her. A hand appeared in front of her face, and some of the fingers from in brushed her cheek. She felt a chin rest upon her head and in the silence of the night, she even heard the drop of a tear onto her pillow above her head. She felt the warm embrace of a body as it pressed against her back, and then she heard a soft voice.

"I'm sorry."

The voice sounded better than anything she had ever heard, and they rang on in her mind for hours. For the first time since her wedding, she cried out of pure happiness. She couldn't stop her mouth from smiling. She turned her body around and pulled herself away from this body up against her to see the face that was resting above her. The face was of sincere regret and shame, and there were streams of tears.

Manna was so overjoyed she even laughed to herself, wiping away her husband's tears with her thumbs. He knew he was forgiven, and his mouth slowly turned into a smile. Manna flung her body forward and wrapped herself around the man in her bed. They held each other closely, and neither wanted to ever let go. Duke slowly backed away and looked into his wife's eyes, and then he kissed her.

It had been so long. Even though it was a small kiss, it seemed to her that it took the entire night. She had forgotten what it felt like, to have his lips locked lightly with her, and the fresh sensation left as it ended. She closed her eyes and rested her head against her husband's chest. She couldn't have been happier at this moment.

She fell asleep.


End file.
